


talking to the moon

by jaehwandred



Category: K-pop, VIXX
Genre: M/M, gratuitous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-11 01:39:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7870534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaehwandred/pseuds/jaehwandred
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taekwoon is scary but horror movies are scarier. The only suitable solution to combatting his fear is obviously to crawl into Taekwoon's bed at 3 in the morning. Jaehwan finds himself at the top of the list of people Taekwoon wants to kill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	talking to the moon

The storm outside seemed to have taken on a life of its own that night. Even with the dim light of his still running laptop from their tiny living room, the branches outside the window slammed against the window with a menace, the thin panes rattling under the shock. The wind was a mournful howl outside with only a flickering streetlamp for company, phantom footsteps picking up a hurried pace in the hallway just outside of their shared apartment.

Jaehwan, truth be told, was not universally renowned for his bright ideas. And this time, he had no one to blame for insisting upon watching a horror movie after dinner.

He figured that he was able to handle horror movies for the most part. He had only screamed once last time and that was only because the jump scare was quite unfair. He forgot to factor in that horror movies lost a significant amount of their scare factor when only half watched during the day time as he idly scrolled through his Twitter.

Jaehwan turned over, pulling his pillow over his head. If he counted as high as he could in every language he knew and blocked out the sound, perhaps he could get back to sleeping soundly. But despite being safe under his covers, even the slow ticking of the clock on his nightstand sounded ominous. The heavy darkness and his own warped sense of perception turning it into a steady metronome, ticking in time to an undiscovered creature lurking in the shadows of his room.

This was ridiculous. He was a grown man and if he lost sleep and failed tomorrow’s Biology exam because he was scared of the dark, he would personally see to it that he dropped out of college himself.

Jaehwan sighed softly, drawing the excessive blankets towards him and throwing his leg over the lump they formed, hugging it close to his chest. This was so much easier when he was back home and able to sleep with the comfort of knowing his dog was at the foot of his bed. Or, well, to be fair, it shouldn’t have been so hard if Jaehwan wasn’t so jumpy and his imagination wasn’t so active.

The wind quieted down for just a moment. It was enough to hear Taekwoon’s soft snoring from the room over. Taekwoon.

They were roommates, sure, and they were rather close considering they had lived together for over a year. But he was rather certain that even between them, there were still unspoken rules that he shouldn’t even think about crawling into bed with Taekwoon out of a misguided sense of safety.

Disturbing Taekwoon at 2:38 AM in the morning probably guaranteed an almost higher chance of death than if he simply resigned himself to death by obscure monster in the dark.

But Taekwoon was Taekwoon and even though he was scary, he always forgave Jaehwan after a day or two no matter how many shenanigans he pulled. He figured it was enough to take the risk.

His bare feet on the wood floors barely made a sound over the tempestuous winds. It was a wonder that Taekwoon was even able to sleep through this at all. He forgot all about being a grown man when he practically ran the short distance between his room and Taekwoon’s, wrapped in his blanket, the tail end of it trailing behind him on the floor. It wouldn’t do to be caught out in the open for too long. Jaehwan silently hoped that Taekwoon would never out him to his friends for being so affected by a horror movie. He also made a silent promise to never watch another one again.

He pushed the door open to be greeted with the sight of Taekwoon’s feet sticking out slightly beyond the covers and despite himself, it brought a smile to his face. He was always a little too tall for these beds but always insisted that he didn’t mind.

Jaehwan figured that if he was quiet enough, he would be able to make it in without rousing Taekwoon’s wrath at the early hour.

There wasn’t enough room for the two of them to share the bed comfortably but Taekwoon was turned on his side so as slowly as he could, he lowered himself onto the bed, turning onto his side to face Taekwoon.

Taekwoon squinted at him almost immediately just as Jaehwan got settled into the warmth of Taekwoon’s bed.

The dim lighting didn’t hinder his ability to see that Jaehwan had just signed off on his own death sentence.

Taekwoon’s voice was soft but nonetheless deadly, “What are you doing?”

Jaehwan smiled sheepishly at him, whispering, “I got scared?”

“Scared of what?” Taekwoon sighed softly, the resignation in his voice heavy with sleep.

Even in the limited space, Jaehwan shrugged, biting his lip and hoping that Taekwoon would take mercy upon him and would be too tired to actually kick him out of his bed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have watched that movie earlier.”

Taekwoon glared harder at him, “You never listen to me.”

“I listen to you sometimes! And you said the movie wasn’t that scary,” Jaehwan protested indignantly.

Taekwoon responded to that by softly punching Jaehwan in the stomach, his face one of displeasure, “Too loud.”

“I’m always too loud for you,” reminded Jaehwan but obligingly quieting his voice.

“I know,” said Taekwoon simply, closing his eyes again.

Jaehwan stared at him incredulously. It couldn’t have been that easy. The normal Taekwoon would grumble more at him then quite literally kick him out. Not let the matter go with under five minutes of complaining and peacefully go back to sleep. “Are you actually letting me stay?” He whispered but even his whispering ended up being too loud. He needed to work on that.

Taekwoon cracked his eyes open again. He had a moment of serious consideration where he had to exercise large amounts of self control to keep from strangling Lee Jaehwan. Not an unusual feeling around him. “Yes, now shut up.”

He couldn’t hide the grin that lit up his face. He thanked every god above that Taekwoon would be too tired to resist when he impulsively grabbed Taekwoon into a hug, burying his face into the older’s chest. “You’re the best, you know that, right?”

Taekwoon froze, his muscles obviously tensing under Jaehwan’s sudden touch. In their close proximity, his face pressed too close to Taekwoon’s chest, he swore he could almost feel his heartbeat quickening. “Taekwoon?”

This was torture.

To have Jaehwan so close to him and oblivious to his predicament. It was a blessing and a curse to feel Jaehwan’s warmth next to him, with his soft eyes in the dark but he wasn’t sure if he would get any actual sleep for the rest of the night when he was fighting his own impulse to draw Jaehwan ever closer to him and whisper sweet nothings. It was an idle dream he had entertained over the year or so they had known each other but Jaehwan had shown no indication that he was actually interested until now. But, no, it wouldn’t do to be hopeful when Jaehwan was probably only here because to put it frankly, he was a coward.

It was endearing.

Taekwoon struggled to shut that line of thought down.

“Go back to sleep,” he eventually muttered, trying to sound as cross as he could.

“Okay, okay,” agreed Jaehwan readily. But there came the inevitable awkwardness of both being awake at the same time with the conversation dead but neither of them fully tired anymore. Taekwoon soon realized that Jaehwan was a very bad bedmate.

He turned this way and that, flipping his pillow to the cold side, kicking Taekwoon in the shins with a whispered “Sorry” as he tried to rearrange himself on the bed. Taekwoon stared up at the ceiling with a silent prayer.

Jaehwan was halfway through another position change when Taekwoon finally gave in and wrapped his arms around Jaehwan’s stomach, pulling him to him until his back was flush with Taekwoon’s chest. “I’m going to give you one more chance to go the fuck to sleep.”

Jaehwan laughed nervously and squirmed in Taekwoon’s grip, turning over his shoulder to smile apologetically at him, “I’m sorry,” he apologized but without an ounce of sincerity in his voice, “but we both know that we’re both awake anyways. Why don’t we talk about our feelings?”

“Absolutely not,” Taekwoon said decisively and let go of Jaehwan to turn over.

The wind outside picked up again, sending an unidentifiable object crashing to the ground and making Jaehwan jump, reflexively grabbing a hold of Taekwoon’s shirt. Taekwoon replied by elbowing him in the stomach making him yelp.

“How do you even sleep through this?” complained Jaehwan, clearly not going to give this up when he figured that if he couldn’t sleep, Taekwoon couldn’t sleep either. He was going to kill him for this in the morning. Right after a very strong dose of caffeine.

Taekwoon sighed deeply, a long suffering noise that he was well in practice of producing from prolonged exposure to Jaehwan. “I’m not a coward like you and I actually need sleep like a functional human being.”

“I’m not a coward!” Jaehwan protested in a very loud whisper. Taekwoon wasn’t even sure why he was whispering anymore considering they were both awake.

Taekwoon turned slowly over again to face Jaehwan, not bothering to conceal the small smile that tugged at the corner of his lips, “Not a coward? Were you just searching for an excuse to climb into bed with me, then?”

Jaehwan spluttered indignantly, his cheeks slowly coloring, which was obvious even in the low light. “I don’t— I have absolutely no idea what you’re implying.”

“I was just teasing you,” Taekwoon said carefully, trying not to sound too disappointed. It seemed that with all of his other friends, Jaehwan would have been more than willing to play along with a joke like that but with Taekwoon, it had always been different. He didn’t want to dwell upon that thought for too long.

Jaehwan must have noticed something different in his tone because he furrowed his brows slightly, “Sorry, I’m probably actually annoying you right now, aren’t I?”

Taekwoon shook his head and replied almost too quickly, “I may hate you, Lee Jaehwan, but I doubt I could ever be actually mad at you.”

“Really? Not even after the time I forgot to put the top on the blender and you came home to a strawberry banana extravaganza?” Jaehwan asked.

Taekwoon remembered that one well. It had taken him copious amounts of internal meditation to make it through that particularly long day without cracking and throwing a kitchen knife at Jaehwan. He eventually forgave everything the next day when Jaehwan earnestly confessed that he thought that Taekwoon would start a huge fight and call off their budding friendship.

“No, not even that,” said Taekwoon.

“Then what about that one time I flooded the room to ruin my final project because I couldn’t finish it on time and told the teacher that my project was ruined due to unforeseen circumstances?” pried Jaehwan.

That one was significantly worse than the blender incident. Taekwoon was still mourning the loss of his brand new leather dress shoes that fit him perfectly but alas, they had been lost to the great Dorm Flood of Jaehwan’s Sophomore Year. “That one was a close call, I think,” admitted Taekwoon.

“I honestly thought that we wouldn’t even last past the first month because I borrowed your favorite sweater but ruined it,” Jaehwan said with a tone of almost wonder, “You must be either a real masochist to put up with me this long or you really like me.”

“I think it’s safe to say that it’s more likely the latter,” said Taekwoon, his voice cautious.

Jaehwan shifted a little closer to him, “You know, that’s awfully vague.”

“I hate you,” replied Taekwoon immediately.

“You don’t hate me,” Jaehwan corrected fearlessly despite the fact that he caught the full force of one of Taekwoon’s signature death stares, “You let me stay here tonight, I know you covered for my rent last month when I was too sick to work for weeks, you wake up early every time I have a project to make me breakfast—”

Taekwoon cut him off, “You paid me back, though.”

“But you still did it without hesitation,” reminded Jaehwan, “Call me crazy but I have a hard time believing that you hate me.”

“You test my patience rather often,” said Taekwoon with an icy stare.

“But like, you like like me, don’t you?” asked Jaehwan with a persistency that Taekwoon had to give him credit for.

Taekwoon fought to look as unimpressed as he could, “What are you, twelve?”

Jaehwan ignored that, “I’m afraid that I am thoroughly unsatisfied with your answer.”

Taekwoon’s heart raced in his chest, unfamiliar with the dizzying heights of pure nervousness. He had put it past Jaehwan’s perceptiveness to pick up on it when Jaehwan himself had professed to being rather blind to anyone showing even the most obvious signs of being interested in him. But even in this respect, it seemed as if Taekwoon was different. He didn’t know what he risked with his response. Jaehwan had never exactly made his sexual orientation known but there was something about the night that made a person more honest. Perhaps it was the comfort they found in each other in a shared space as the night lurked just outside the window but they remained safe under the covers, with Jaehwan’s bright eyes aglow in the still gentle moonlight.

“How would you reply if I said ‘yes’?”

Jaehwan considered the question with an exaggerated downward turn of his full lips, “I suppose, hypothetically, I would reply with an enigmatic response suggesting that I returned your feelings to some extent.”

Taekwoon made a quiet sound of amusement, “And how would you reply if I said ‘no’?”

“Then I would attempt to not look or sound heartbroken as I turn over and cry myself to sleep like a character in teenage fiction,” Jaehwan replied matter-of-factly.

Taekwoon couldn’t help his own smile in response to Jaehwan’s giddy grin, “I suppose I will save you the heartbreak then,” Jaehwan’s smile grew wider but more bashful and Taekwoon’s breath caught in his chest, “I do like you, much as it pains me to admit it.”

“So you don’t hate me?”

“No, I still hate you,” Taekwoon said.

“Well, you’ll hate me more after I do this, then,” said Jaehwan. Then he leaned in, cupping Taekwoon’s face with his hands, and kissed him.

It was chaste and simple. Jaehwan’s hands on his skin were curious and testing, pressing softly into his skin, cautiously holding something he wanted so badly but was still afraid he would lose. They parted for barely half a second before Taekwoon pulled him in again, making a soft noise of contentment as his hands carded through Jaehwan’s sleep mussed hair, feeling the other languidly melt into his touch.

“Still hate me?” murmured Jaehwan against his lips.

Taekwoon scoffed, “Nothing can change that.”

Jaehwan cuddled in closer to Taekwoon under the covers, wrapping him in a tight embrace, his lips pressed to the soft skin of his neck, “Well, that doesn’t change the fact that I still like you.”

Taekwoon sighed again but without any real severity behind it. “Now can we please just go the fuck to sleep?”

“Er,” said Jaehwan haltingly, “I hate to break this one to you but the sun’s rising right now as I speak.”

Silence settled in the room with the coming dawn, the storms of the previous night disappearing with the menacing shadows that had sent Jaehwan scrambling to Taekwoon’s room in the first place.

Taekwoon closed his eyes anyways, “I hate you.”


End file.
